Ode to La Loba: The Wild Wolf Within
photo credit: erebus-odora
Ancient story-seeker, keeper of the Wild Feminine, fearless creator, powerful ally, La Loba is calling to men and women alike, beckoning us from just beyond the veil. Come, find empowerment. Gather the strewn bones. Sing life back into the broken heart of the world.
La Loba is within us all. You are La Loba. I am La Loba. Our Grandmothrs are La Loba. La Loba is our Mother-guide. A shapeshifter. A loner. The one who sings flesh onto the bones by firelight. The one far out in the desert, up in the mountain cave, deep in the woods. La Loba is "the one who knows" within each and every one of us. She is our instinct, our ability to die to our old selves and be reborn, our creative impulse. We know which way to go next when La Loba is strong in us. La Loba is the she-beast within, the Great Navigator, the wily lovely one, the pimple-covered one, the one whose hair is falling out, the irresistible one, the stretch-marked one, the one who can't stop singing.
La Loba invites men and women alike to gather together and restore the mythology of Woman to the world, once and for all. La Loba is the patron saint of Bombilore because we need to rearrange and rethink the stories swirling within and around us. We need to shift how we talk about not just women in the world today, but the Wild Feminine. The Wolf Woman is no longer willing to sit on the fringe. She has entered the common consciousness, and she won’t be burned again….
Nevertheless, so many silent women (and men) need La Loba to find them, and in our hearts we know it...
When sleeping women wake, mountains move.
Chinese Proverb
photo Goroshinki
When we look at the statistics facing our dear Mother Earth- where we ALL live- and when we look at the statistics facing women today, there are astonishing parallels, and astonishing work to be done for both.
The Wild Feminine is a way of framing this work within a paradigm shift that recognizes the importance of not just dignity and equality for women, but for all beings, via the potent energy of the Yin, or female Spirit.
The word feminism has a long and complex history. In truth there has never been a total consensus on the meaning of the word. It's a dynamic and ever-evolving concept, necessary only because we live within an overwhelmingly patriarchal norm. Unfortunately, many have used the condition of its ambiguity as an excuse to, truth be told, rape the word of its essential stronghold.
We do not believe that Feminism has anything to do with "man-hating," nor does it have to do with being labeled frigid, bitches, butches, or bullies. All of these ideas about Feminism and feminists are misguided and fractured. We encourage men and all genders to contribute to La Loba’s resurrection too.
We encourage women to rise up and take your seat next to men in the running of this world. Not as men, not like men do it, but as women, in the ways that women do things. Start a business, a movement, a poem… whatever! Just begin.
It's time to balance the scale, nurture men's Wild Feminine, scream and yell if we must. HOWL. Conjure up "the one who knows" in the hearts of women and girls everywhere... conjure up LA LOBA.
Sit in Ceremony Council with me~ A special, FREE offering in which to be witnessed in your wild becoming. We will touch in on what’s stirring for you creatively & spiritually in your mythic calling and co-crate a simple ceremony that you can perform on your own to help invite change and transformation into your life.
Dr. Clarissa Pinkola-Estes
Credits must be given to Clarissa Pinkola-Estes, whose seminal book Women Who Run With The Wolves re-gifted (namely Western) women a near-lost mythology when published. Her telling of La Loba is a rich and layered adventure, and starts the book off. A cantadora, or keeper of the old stories, Clarissa Pinkola-Estes is a visionary of our times. Her voluminous masterpiece is required reading for anyone interested in women's unique challenges and narratives, the Wild Feminine, and women's ways of existing in the world today.
source: Rebelle Society